Television Station Participation

University of Central Oklahoma

Department of Mass Communication

TELEVISION STATION PARTICIPATION

MCOM 2511

SYLLABUS FALL 2008

Instructor: Dr. Keith Swezey, Professor Office: 207B Communications Building

Office Phone: 974-2792 Home Phone: 341‑4973

Email: kswezey@ucok.edu FAX: 974-3837

Office hours: Monday – Friday 11:00 a.m. – Noon, by email and by appointment

COURSE NUMBER: COMM 2511

PREREQUISITES: COMM 2443; Instructor permission required.

COURSE MEETS: We will have a required meeting at 3:30 p.m., Tuesday, August 19.

This is the first class for the semester so DO NOT miss this meeting. All students enrolled in the course must attend this meeting unless they have a class conflict. You will be notified in time to reschedule work.

Thereafter: 1 – 6 pm one day per week, Monday through Thursday, as arranged with instructor and according to show production needs. Ne

TEXTBOOK: None

COURSE MATERIALS: None

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

Participation in college television productions and newscasts. Written permission of instructor required. One credit hour may be earned per semester. A maximum of 4 hours credit towards a major or minor may be earned.

COURSE OBJECTIVES:

· To demonstrate to the student the operation of a television station.

· To provide hands-on experiences with equipment essential to produce a television program.

· To familiarize the student with all crew positions during live newscasts and/or a program production session.

· To demonstrate the reporter’s and producer’s function in the day-to-day operation of a newsroom.

METHODOLOGY STATEMENT:

Students are assigned various crew positions during the semester under the supervision and instruction of Broadcasting faculty and staff. These positions rotate during the semester, allowing the students to build a basic competency in the areas of newsroom, field production and studio operations.

COURSE GOALS:

Students must show competence in all studio crew positions by the end of the semester;

Students must show competence at basic reportorial functions, including reporting, shooting, writing and editing basic news stories by the end of the semester.

Television Station Participation Syllabus Fall 2008

COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND EVALUATION:

Grading is based on participation (attendance) and competence of work. Students enrolled in the course will be expected to complete four hours of work, one afternoon a week in the newsroom or TV studios.

ABSENCES:

Since your participation is central to the course, unexcused absences will result in lowering the final grade. Please contact me before the day of the class with a bona fide reason for the absence in order to have an excused absence for that day. For excused absences, students are allowed to make-up the work.

Unexcused absences are those for which arrangements are not made in advance for the absence or the instructor is not contacted before the class regarding an absence. The grade will be lowered five percent (5%) for each unexcused absence. More than five (5) unexcused absences can result in a failing grade for the course.

GRADING:

Participation in production/newscast 30 points x 16 weeks = 480 (55%) (-5% for each

unexcused

Demonstrated competence 25 points x 16 weeks = 400 (45%) absence)

Total 880

Retention of Course Materials

Because of limited storage space, the instructor will keep projects and other work submitted until the second week of the following semester. If students don't pick up their projects by then, they will be disposed of.

Syllabus Changes

The professor reserves the right to amend the syllabus at any time. The contents of this syllabus are subject to revision 24 hours a day, seven days a week through the entire semester. Students are put on notice as to the contents of this syllabus during the course of the semester.

Department of Mass Communication Policies – Fall 2008

Advisement:

Mass Communication classes held in the morning and early afternoon will be dismissed October 29-30 for pre-enrollment advisement by faculty (unless your instructor announces otherwise). All Mass Communication majors will be required to make and keep an appointment with a faculty member on one of those days. [Note: COMM 1113 Fundamentals of Speech and COMM 2023 Communication for Teachers will not be cancelled.]

UCO Student Code of Conduct 2008-2009: Students are responsible for all information in the Student Code of Conduct 2008-2009. This can be accessed on the Student Affairs Publications website at http://www.ucok.edu/student_affairs/publications.html.

ACADEMIC DISHONESTY AND PLAGIARISM:

The UCO Student Code of Conduct describes Academic Dishonesty and outlines the steps for disciplinary action in the Guidelines for Alleged Academic Dishonesty. This information can be found in Section III, C, 3 & 4.

Academic dishonesty: Includes but is not limited to the “giving” and “taking” of improper assistance in examinations and assignments; not adhering to correct procedures for identification of sources in reports and essays and all creative endeavors; intentional misrepresentation; cheating; plagiarism; and unauthorized possession of examinations. The UCO Student Code of Conduct provides further details.

Additionally, any work submitted as an assignment for one class may not be submitted for credit in another class, without prior permission of the professor. Any work so submitted will receive an automatic "0."

Plagiarism: When a student submits any assignment for a course (written, oral, videotape, audiotape, photograph or Web Site), the student will submit entirely original work or will properly cite all sources utilized in the preparation of the assignment. Without proper citation, the student is guilty of plagiarism, which is not tolerated at UCO.

As a student, you are responsible for understanding what constitutes plagiarism. You should talk to your professor to ensure that you can recognize and avoid all types of plagiarism. Plagiarism occurs in two primary ways:

1. Word-for-word copying, without acknowledgement, of the language or creative work of another person. Having another person complete all or part of your assignment is plagiarism and is clearly forbidden. But, in addition, the student should include NO written, video, audio, or photographic material from an existing source, no matter how brief, without acknowledging the source. When using the written words of an existing source in your assignment, either place the borrowed words in quotation marks or set the quotation aside as a block quotation. Additionally, you must include the citation for the material in your assignment. This applies to even the briefest of phrases if they are truly distinctive.

2. The unacknowledged paraphrasing of an author’s ideas. The student should no more take credit for another person’s thoughts than for another person’s words. Any distinctive, original idea taken from another writer should be credited to its author. If you are not sure whether or not an author’s idea is distinctive, you should assume that it is: no fault attaches to over-acknowledgement, but under-acknowledgement is plagiarism. Most style manuals (e.g., Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association) provide information concerning how to paraphrase and cite the ideas and writings of existing sources.

Students may be dismissed from the university for plagiarism. University guidelines provide a range of disciplinary action dependent upon the severity of the offense including but not limited to: requiring a substitute assignment, awarding a reduced grade, awarding a failing grade for the assignment, awarding a failing grade for the course, or expelling the student from the university. Acknowledging that instances of plagiarism may range from minor to severe, the Department of Mass Communication allows the course professor to determine the severity and the disciplinary action for the first instance of plagiarism committed by a student in the professor’s course. However, if that student commits plagiarism a second time in the course, departmental policy requires that the student receive both a failing grade (“F”) for the course and a referral to the UCO Student Conduct Officer. Students should make sure they understand professor expectations for sources and content to be cited.

College of Liberal Arts Policies

Tobacco products are prohibited from the classroom. All personal communication devices are to be turned off or put on silent mode in the classroom. This includes pagers, cell phones, etc.

University Policies

ADA Statement Regarding Special Accommodations:

The University of Central Oklahoma complies with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Students with disabilities who need special accommodations must contact the assistant director of Disability Support Services, Kim Fields, in room 309 of the Nigh University Center, (405) 974-2549. It is the student’s responsibility to contact the instructor as soon as possible after the DSS has verified the need for accommodations to ensure that such accommodations are implemented in a timely fashion.

Additional policies for this course are included in the Fall 2008 UCO Student Information Sheet and Syllabus Attachment which can be accessed at

http://www.ucok.edu/academicaffairs/StudentInfoSheet.pdf